Reuben's Sightglass

In this fourth installment of our series of the impact of Coronavirus on breweries you'll get a detailed view of the crisis from the perspective of four brewery owners in California, New York State, Oregon, and Washington.

As states move towards phased reopening our panel discusses what’s next: occupancy and social distancing requirements in their restaurants and tasting rooms, the role of businesses to create safety protocols themselves, and contingency planning for the future, all while each brewery is still uncertain as to when they’ll be able to reopen.

An elephant in the room throughout the conversation is the specter of a recession, or worse a depression, that may stem from the economic impact already wrought by COVID-19.

Last week Reuben's Brews put out a public survey to gauge sentiment around Washington State's phased reopening program, and the reopening of our tasting rooms. With almost 1,500 responses, we wanted to share what we've learned.

Listen in on this live conversation between Adam and Grace Robbings (Co-Founders), Ashley Hermosillo (Tasting Rooms Manager), and Matt Lutton (Marketing Manager) from Monday, May 25th, where the four of us sat down to discuss the results for the first time.

Recently Adam sat down with Andy Gundel of Urban Family Brewing Co., a friend and a neighbor, who has a unique perspective for a brewery owner: he took over an existing business and has taken it to new heights. Andy discusses his path towards brewery ownership, the changes he's led over the years (including moving in next door to our brewery earlier this year), the impact of COVID-19, and their future plans (which include self-distribution).

Earlier this year we sat down with Gary Sink, the publican behind West Seattle's Beveridge Place Pub. Gary is a fixture in the Pacific Northwest craft beer community, and in this episode we hear about his path to owning and opening one of the seminal beer bars in the city. Reuben's Brews has a long history with Gary and Beveridge Place, and we enjoy reminiscing about past events.

This latest episode of The Impact of Coronavirus on Breweries series checks in with three of our friends around the nation: John Harris from Ecliptic Brewing in Portland, OR, JC Hill from Alvarado Street in Monterey, CA., and John Dantzler from Torch & Crown Brewing in New York City.

Every two weeks we reconnect and see what's new in their breweries and their regions since we last spoke, and explore their feelings about what comes next. At the end Adam Robbings, co-founder and brewmaster of Reuben's Brews, gives his own report about what is happening at the brewery and in Seattle.

A conversation with Doug and Tom, the founders of Zeeks Pizza, a Seattle and Pacific Northwest institution born in 1993, and one of Reuben's Brews' first accounts. Zeeks' story begins with two friends leaving the corporate world for one of passion and entrepreneurship, which mirrors Adam's journey to starting a brewery. Doug and Tom share stories of growing their business over great PNW craft beer, which they've long featured in their restaurants.

This is this second episode of The Impact of Coronavirus on Breweries series we check in with three of our friends and discuss how their breweries are navigating the Coronavirus pandemic. Every two weeks for the next couple of months we will speak to John Dantzler from Torch & Crown Brewing in New York City, John Harris from Ecliptic Brewing in Portland, OR, and JC Hill from Alvarado Street in Monterey, CA. Today we reconnect and see what's new in the proceeding two weeks, and explore their feelings about what comes next for their breweries and their regions.

In our third of three conversations from a trip to Bellingham, WA we took late last year we interviewed our friend Chad Kuehl, the owner and head brewer of Wander Brewing. We have a great discussion about how Chad and his wife Colleen got in to the brewing business and how they chose Bellingham as their home base. We also get in to the economics of brewing beer at different size breweries, and the benefits of both staying small or growing larger.

This is the first of a series of podcasts following three of our friends and their breweries through the Coronavirus pandemic. Every two weeks for the next couple of months we will speak to John Dantzler from Torch and Crown Brewing in New York City, John Harris from Ecliptic Brewing in Portland, OR, and JC Hill from Alvarado Street in Monterey, CA. We will learn how the pandemic is impacting their region of the United States, their communities, their breweries and their teams. We will follow them over time as we go through this once in a generation situation, with perspectives from different parts of the country and very different brewery business models.

In our second of three conversations from a trip to Bellingham, WA we interviewed Frank Trosset, the head brewer of Aslan Brewing Co., one of the Pacific Northwest's only organic craft breweries. We discuss some of the unique challenges his team faces, including limitations in hop selection to government involvement in their recipe development. We finish with a discussion of the Noma Guide to Fermentation, which Frank took inspiration from to make an innovative non-alcoholic beer that they serve at their pub.